SANAA: Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis descended on Sanaa Thursday in a major show of force for ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose alliance with the country’s Houthi rebels has been shaken by distrust.

Tensions have been rising between Saleh and his onetime foe, rebel chief Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, who in 2014 joined ranks in a shock alliance that drove the government out of the capital and into the southern province of Aden.

The rally marking 35 years since the founding of Saleh’s Arab nationalist General People’s Congress sends out a signal that the strongman remains a force to be reckoned with.

“We came today to the square to show our faith in the General People’s Congress and in Ali Abdullah Saleh,” Saeed al-Obeidi said at the rally.

“Today the GPC proved that it is a national party and that the Houthis are incapable of leading the nation the way a real political party can.”

Crowds poured into the four-square-kilometer square and into the streets of the capital, waving the blue flag of the GPC and carrying pictures of the 75-year-old Saleh.

Saleh ruled Yemen with an iron fist for more than three decades before stepping down in 2012 after a bloody yearlong uprising.

But the strongman retained the loyalty of some of the best-equipped units in the military and later joined forces with the Houthis, after they overran the capital in 2014.

The ensuing civil war between the Saudi-backed government and the Houthi-Saleh alliance has killed thousands and brought the country to the brink of famine.

Saleh’s supporters had traveled to Sanaa from across the impoverished country, camping out in Sabaeen Square overnight ahead of the rally.

An AFP reporter in Sanaa said the Houthis had set up checkpoints at the main entrances to the city.

But they did nothing to stop the demonstrators from reaching the square, where the rebels had also deployed but did not interfere with the rally.

Saleh appeared in person at the rally and gave a brief speech behind bulletproof glass, surrounded by heavily armed guards.

“We are political pioneers with a solid anchor, and we have been facing conspiracies against us since 2011,” he told the cheering crowd.

Saleh said he was ready to deploy “tens of thousands of fighters to the front lines,” on condition the rebel-led government train and pay them.

Analysts have said the rally serves in part as public protest against the Iran-backed Houthis, who with Saleh have run the capital since 2014.

The rebels have rapidly risen in a parallel government in Sanaa, and now hold clout in the city’s economy, defense and education ministries.

Former troops and civil servants in the parallel rebel-run government have not been paid for months.Saleh’s second-in-command in the GPC, Aref al-Zouka, Thursday accused the Houthis of financial mismanagement and corruption, saying the party refused to be “allies for show.”

A war of words between Saleh and Houthi has escalated in the past week.

The two have publicly accused each other of treason, with Saleh hinting his allies were merely “a militia” and the rebels warning the former president he would “bear the consequences” of the insult.

The Houthis reportedly suspect Saleh has been negotiating with an Arab military coalition that supports the Yemeni government.

The Saleh camp has meanwhile accused the Houthis of aiming to consolidate their power in Sanaa.